So, how can getting financial rewards or material incentives for working harder, smarter, faster and better possibly be detrimental to our business? Dan Pink says there are seven fatal flaws in this way of working. Material rewards and incentives can:

extinguish intrinsic motivation

diminish performance

crush creativity

crowd out good behavior

encourage cheating

become addictive

foster short term thinking

...

Reader Comment:

Nikole Fairview said:

Motivation is a very interesting thing. This is something that all marketers are aiming to use in their appeals and offers, yet very few actually achieve. This is the major reason why so few people actually take action. Whether we want them to watch ...

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The reason we are the ghosts in the machine is that our three greatest motivators are autonomy, mastery and purpose. These are motivational forces from within, and they don't go away.

Let me tell you a story that speaks to a few of the flaws Yaro listed.

I've got a storage room in my basement that has swallowed up quite a few of my kids' toys. One way that they can get toys out of storage is to try new foods.

Anybody who has finicky kids won't be surprised to hear that it's next to impossible to get ours to try anything new (even to get a toy).

But what proves Yaro's point is that sometimes, they'll resist eating something they know they'll like because we won't give them a toy for it!

3 Responses:

Hi Antone, Yes that's all true. I even declined to sign up for your Inner circle even for just $1 on principle that you were forcing me to do something I didn't want to do, even though I wanted the special you were offering (the one before this one , 3 pack for $9) and would have gladly paid the price for it if I had been able.

Motivation is a very interesting thing. This is something that all marketers are aiming to use in their appeals and offers, yet very few actually achieve. This is the major reason why so few people actually take action. Whether we want them to watch a video, click a link or buy something. They operate on their own time table.

An interesting factor in all of this is that sometimes offering a number of rewards and incentives can actually work against us and serve to DE- motivate people. This is not something that you will hear many of the so called gurus talking about, yet it is true nonetheless. By offering all different types of rewards and incentives to do something, this leads people to need more and more incentives to do anything. This can lead to someone thinking to themselves that they are not even going to bother going to that website, since the owner is giving away 'only' an ebook and and 2 videos.

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Get to Know Us

Hi.
I'm Antone Roundy.
I'm a strong believer in ethics, and have always tried to practice and promote ethical behavior in an industry where many slip over to the dark side.
At White Hat Crew, I'll share insights into internet marketing, with extra emphasis on ethical issues.